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GAO-02-914T Military and Veterans' Benefits: Observations on The United States General Accounting Office GAO Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Benefits, Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, House of Representatives For Release on Delivery Expected at 10:00 a.m. EST, Thursday, July 18, 2002 MILITARY AND VETERANS’ BENEFITS Observations on the Transition Assistance Program Statement of Cynthia A. Bascetta, Director Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues GAO-02-914T Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: Thank you for inviting me to discuss the military’s transition assistance program, which the Congress established in 1990 during a time of military downsizing to help service men and women return to civilian life. Since its inception, the program has served over one million separating and retiring military personnel and has been administered through the coordinated efforts of the Departments of Defense (DOD), Transportation (DOT), Labor (DOL), and Veterans Affairs (VA). In fiscal year 2001, the military branches and DOL spent approximately $47.5 million to provide transition assistance to about 222,000 separating and retiring service members. Today, I will describe the transition assistance offered by each military branch and how their transition assistance programs and services differ. I will also discuss what is known about how well program objectives, such as transitioning to civilian employment, have been met. To conduct our work, we analyzed program descriptions and administrative data from documentation provided by DOD, DOT, DOL, and VA. We also conducted structured group interviews during fieldwork at five locations, one at each military branch—the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard.1 We talked to about 70 service members, including separatees and retirees as well as members expected to separate with a disability, who had participated in the transition assistance workshop. At each location, we also interviewed commanding officers, supervisors, and transition assistance program staff. While all military branches were represented, we cannot generalize from this information. In addition, we did not interview service members who did not receive transition assistance services. Finally, we reviewed existing studies of the transition assistance program. Our work was conducted from March 2002 through July 2002, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. In summary, while each branch of the military provides required pre- separation counseling and offers transition assistance workshops to help service members transition to civilian life, not all eligible service members 1 We conducted structured group interviews at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina; Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland; Fort Stewart, Georgia; Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida; and U.S. Coast Guard Integrated Support Command Miami, Florida. We observed a transition assistance program workshop at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. We also observed disabled transition assistance program workshops at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District of Columbia. Page 1 GAO-02-914T receive transition assistance. Because the military branches have considerable flexibility in designing their programs to address the perceived needs of their service members, transition assistance varies in content and delivery across the military branches. For example, the Army uses contract staff and interactive job assistance tools to provide the level of employment-related assistance it believes many of its service members need. In addition, service members experience differences in access to transition assistance depending on their unique circumstances. For example, service members who receive transition assistance while stationed at remote locations often receive less extensive transition assistance than what is available at other locations. Service members we talked to liked the services they received, and several studies confirm participant satisfaction with transition assistance. However, isolating the impact of transition assistance on employment, education, and other outcomes is difficult because of data inadequacies and methodological challenges. Only two program evaluations from the early 1990s evaluated the effectiveness of transition assistance on employment and provided limited information. Moreover, they did not evaluate the impact of transition assistance on other potential goals, including recruitment and retention, which could have growing importance now that the military is no longer downsizing. Background When the Congress established the transition assistance program in 1990,2 significant reductions in military force levels were expected. The law noted that many of these service personnel specialized in critical skills, such as combat arms, which would not transfer to the civilian workforce. Transition assistance, including employment and job training services, was established to help such service members make suitable educational and career choices as they readjusted to civilian life. The law directed DOL, DOD, and VA to jointly administer the program. To do so, the agencies entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which spelled out each agency’s role in the provision of services to members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. When the Coast Guard started to operate the transition assistance program in 1994, DOT entered into a similar agreement with VA and DOL. 2 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991, P.L. 101-510, November 5, 1990. Page 2 GAO-02-914T Each branch of the military is required to provide pre-separation counseling to all military personnel no later than 90 days prior to their separation from the military. Pre-separation counseling, according to the law, shall include information about education and vocational rehabilitation benefits, selective reserve options, job counseling and job search and placement information, relocation assistance services, medical and dental benefits, counseling on the effects of career change, and financial planning. The military branches are to provide space for the provision of transition services at locations with more than 500 active duty personnel. Separating service members must complete a pre-separation counseling checklist indicating that they have been informed of the services available to them and, on this checklist, they are to indicate the services they wish to receive, including if they wish to participate in the transition assistance workshop. For locations in the United States, DOL is responsible for providing transition assistance workshops, which are generally 3-day training sessions focusing primarily on resume writing and job search strategies and includes a manual with basic information on the material covered in the workshop.3 The MOU identifies specific workshop objectives, including preventing and reducing long-term unemployment, reducing unemployment compensation paid to veterans, and improving retention. DOL spent about $5 million in fiscal year 2001 to provide about 3,200 workshops, in addition to the funding spent on transition assistance by the military branches shown in table 1. The workshop and other transition services are to be accessible to service members two years prior to retirement and one year prior to separation.4 As part of the transition assistance workshop, VA is responsible for providing information on veterans’ benefits, including information on disability benefits. VA is also responsible for providing more detailed information and assistance to those service members separating or retiring due to a disability. 3 When available these seminars are facilitated by Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVER) or Disabled Veterans Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists, federally funded staff, who are part of states’ employment service systems and provide direct employment services to eligible veterans. If they are unavailable, federal DOL staff or a DOL contractor facilitates the transition assistance workshop. At overseas locations, the workshops are facilitated by DOD. 4 Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001, P.L. 107-103, Dec. 27, 2001, extended from 6 months to 1 year for separatees and from 1 year to 2 years for retirees, the time prior to separation that service members may access transition assistance. Page 3 GAO-02-914T Table 1: Transition Assistance Funding by Military Branch, Fiscal Year 2001 Army Air Force Marine Navy Coast Guard Total Funding (in millions)a DOD 13.5 8.9 4.0 10.3 0.0 36.7 Other 5.3b 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5c 5.8 Total 18.8 8.9 4.0 10.3 0.5 42.5 Transition Assistance Workshopsd Number held 1,207 1,115 520 1,075 33 3,950 Length (in days) 2-3 3 3-4 4 4 N/A Average class size 24 25 41 38 35 N/A a These amounts do not include DOL or VA funding, DOD overhead expenditures or any resources contributed by local installations. b The Army provides funds to supplement transition assistance. c This amount includes funds from both Coast Guard Headquarters and local Coast Guard installations. d These numbers include both DOL facilitated and contractor facilitated workshops in the U.S. and DOD facilitated workshops overseas. Source: DOD and DOT. In 1996, Congress established the Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance and directed it to review programs that provide benefits and services to veterans and service members making the transition to civilian life. The Transition Commission examined pre- separation counseling and transition assistance program workshops
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